Departments map the hierarchical organizational structure of your company in ZEP. You can create locations as top-level units and departments as sub-units, assign employees, and define department managers.

Department management with checkbox Show also inactive departments and Execute button plus New department button and Departments table with columns short form, description, department manager, note and default mailbox and row Muster with sub-department Muster 1 and department manager Control

Roles & Access Rights

Administrators

Create, edit, and delete departments
Assign employees to departments and enter department managers
Access to all department views

Controllers

Read access to the reports of all departments (under Reports > Departments)

Department Managers

View and manage their own departments and sub-departments
Depending on basic settings: create employees, customers, and projects, and modify internal hourly rates

Department Overview

The Departments menu item opens the department overview with all created departments and locations. The view can be displayed as a list or tree structure. Use the search to quickly find individual departments. Clicking a department opens the detail view.

Creating Departments

Administrators can create a new organizational unit via Add new department. The following fields are available in the dialog:

Short code (required): Internal abbreviation for the department
Name (required): Full name of the department
Currency: Department-specific currency for internal cost reports – only available with the Revenue & Costs module
Parent department: Parent department or location in the hierarchy
Notes: Internal note for the department

Tip: Create locations as top-level units without a parent department. Departments then receive the respective location as their parent, mapping the full company hierarchy.

Department Data

In the department detail view – Data tab – you can view and edit the master data of the department. The following fields are available:

Short code: Internal abbreviation for the department
Name: Full name of the department
Inactive: Inactive departments can no longer be selected but are retained for historical reports
Parent department: Parent department or location in the hierarchy
Sub-departments: Automatically generated overview of all direct sub-departments
Notes: Internal notes for the department

Department Muster with tabs General active, Settings, Ticket system, Reports, Other and Actions plus section Data with short form Muster, superordinate department None and subordinate departments Muster 1

In the Settings tab of the department detail view, you can configure department-specific email header and footer content using a simple HTML editor.

Department Currency

Note: A department's currency field is available in ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional. With the Invoicing module, you find it in the department's billing settings, otherwise in the general department data. The internal cost analysis by department currency additionally requires the Revenue & Costs module.

By default, your company’s base currency applies to all departments. For departments in different countries, you can specify a separate currency per department. The department currency affects the following areas:

Internal hourly rates of employees are specified in the department currency
The department-level cost report is generated in the department currency
Expense reports and payout documentation are preferably created in the employee’s department currency

If you change the currency of a department or reassign an employee to a different department, the internal hourly rates are not automatically converted to the new currency.

Currencies and exchange rates are managed under Administration > Prices & Receipts > Exchange Rates. There you also define the base currency for your company.

Project and customer currencies are independent of the department currency. Project-related reports are generally created in the respective project currency.

Sending invoices by email

Note: The department billing settings require the Invoicing module and are not available in ZEP Clock.

In the Settings tab of a department, the Billing sub-item bundles the department-specific invoicing settings. If you send your invoices to customers by email, you can store a separate sender address here that differs from the global email settings.

The following fields are available:

Sender address: department-specific sender address for sending invoices.
Sender name: displayed name of the sender.
Response address (reply-to): a customer reply to the invoice sent by email goes to this address.
Response name (reply-to): the customer reply is addressed under this name.

Note: If you do not enter a sender address, the global email settings apply. As soon as you store your own sender address, the other department-specific fields also apply to this department.

Tip: If you use your own sender address, also set up a dedicated outgoing mail server (SMTP) that matches this address.

Assigning Department Managers

In the Department Manager tab of the department view, administrators can register employees as department managers. A department can have multiple department managers. Department managers receive extended permissions in ZEP according to the basic settings.

ZEP distinguishes two types of department manager assignment:

Direct assignment: Employees explicitly assigned to this department as department managers. This assignment can be removed.
Implicit assignment: Employees who hold department manager rights for this department because they are assigned as department manager to a superior department. This assignment cannot be deleted.

In the employee profile under Assignments > Department Manager you can see which departments an employee is registered as a leader for.

Managing Employees

The Employees tab shows all employees assigned to this department. Administrators – and, depending on the basic settings, department managers – can add new employees or assign existing ones via the Add employee button. Assignment to multiple departments is possible.

Tip: The department assignment can alternatively be set directly in the employee record – in the edit form under Employees > [Name] > Data.

Projects and Customers

Note: The Projects and Customers tabs are not available in ZEP Clock. They are available in ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional.

The Projects tab shows all projects assigned to this department. The Customers tab lists the associated customers. These links enable department-based reports at the project and customer level. In the cost report under Reports > Departments, project and customer assignments feed directly into the breakdown by internal and customer-related projects.

Department Muster section Department manager with checkbox Only currently employed employees and button Assign employee as department manager plus Department managers table with columns username, first name and last name and row Mitarbeiter Manuela Mitarbeiter

The department assignment can also be set directly in the project or customer master data – not only via these tabs in the department view.

Employee Locks

Note: The working time overview is only available in connection with the Absences & Overtime module.

Department managers can view the working time overview in the Employee Locks tab of the department detail view. It shows all employees of the department including sub-departments with their booked hours per day for a selected month, enabling a quick check of whether all employees have fully recorded their time.

Department Muster section Working time overview for employee blocks with employee category any, display details working time or billable non-billable distribution, Red at less than 50% of regular working time, month 05.2025 and note Last completed month is 2/2023

Color coding helps identify issues at a glance:

Yellow: Days with more than 10 hours of booked working time
Red background: Days where recorded time is more than 50 % below standard working hours without a defined absence reason (vacation, time off in lieu)
Gray: Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays

Using the Lock employee button, a department manager can lock individual employees or all employees in the department for the selected month. The effects of an employee lock are analogous to month-end closing: no project times, receipts, or absences can be recorded, changed, or deleted for that month – not even by administrators.

Cover Page

The Cover Page tab in the department detail view provides a structured overview of all important master data for the department.

Department Muster tab Reports active with sections Data short form Muster, department manager with employee Manuela and employees with Admin Admiral Admin and permissions Administrator

Deleting Departments

Administrators can remove a department via Actions > Delete department. Deletion is only possible if no active employees, projects, or customers are still assigned to the department. Alternatively, you can deactivate the department by setting the Inactive field. Inactive departments no longer appear in reports but are retained for historical evaluations.

Create and Manage Departments